New ESRC grant awarded to early career researchers

REPAIR: Redesigned Equitable Processes for Inclusive Research Funding is a 1-year, ESRC-funded project led by early career researcher Christin Henein (PI) and other UCL co-investigators belonging to underrepresented groups in academia. The team are supported and mentored by five senior Co-Is, including the Vice-Deans for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and Research at the Faculty of Brain Sciences, the Vice-Dean EDI at the Faculty of the Humanities, the Director of Equality Research in Brain Sciences, and the Chair of the UCL Research Culture Community Steering Group.

The study targets: (1) internal selection and preselection processes at universities, which lack the transparency of external funding processes; (2) inequalities in internal grant selection that affect early career researchers due to subjective over objective judgements, impacting career trajectories; and (3) disparities in grant processes for alternative careers in industry, enterprise and innovation sectors.

By addressing the research question, "How can internal (pre)selection processes for research funding and key career decisions (e.g., prize nominations, industry knowledge exchange) be redesigned to minimize bias and better support marginalized early career researchers?", the project aims to develop and implement fairer, more transparent processes for research funding.